Tag Archives: San Antonio Riverwalk

Wednesday, December 9 was a banner day for Monarch butterflies and all pollinators in San Antonio, Texas. That’s when Mayor Ivy Taylor announced that the Alamo City has been named the first Monarch Champion in the country by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).

San Antoino Mayor Ivy Taylor sported Monarch butterfly wing bling when she announced San Antonio’s Monarch Champion status and her signature on the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge December 9. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Standing before a group of pollinator enthusiasts at City Hall and wearing stylish Monarch butterfly wing earrings, Mayor Taylor shared the proclamation that commits our city to adopting all 24 recommended actions cited by the NWF in their nationwide initiative known as the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge.

“I am pleased that we have set the bar so high in our efforts to attract and care for one very important set of visitors, migrating Monarch butterflies,” said Mayor Taylor in a prepared statement.

That high bar means San Antonio can expect more citizen science projects, a pollinator garden at City Hall or another highly visible public space, more pollinator-friendly landscape ordinances and city mowing schedules, and my personal favorite–a butterfly festival. Insecta Fiesta, anyone?

We’re talking changes in building codes, recommendations for landscaping by the City’s Sustainability Office and increased grassroots activities like city-sanctioned native plant sales and seed exchanges.

Doug Melnick, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of San Antonio, said the Mayor’s Pledge is not “just talk.” It will bring about real change. “This will positively impact how we manage city-owned land,” he said.

“I hope to see a citywide conversion of useless streetside inferno strips to Antelope horns milkweed,” said another city staffer who works for our award-winning water utility, SAWS. The staff person referred to the overheated and challenging-to-landscape swatch of land found between a city sidewalk and the street. SAWS has done much to raise awareness of native, pollinator-friendly plants through its GardenStyleSA website and WaterSaver coupons that offer rebates to those who replace water-guzzling turf with native plants.

The timing couldn’t be better, said Melnick. The City is currently developing three plans under the umbrella of SA Tomorrow: Comprehensive, Sustainability, and Strategic Multi-Modal plans. “We have a great opportunity to further the protection of Monarch butterfly habitats and enhance our biodiversity by incorporating these key strategies into our plans, which will provide a framework for growth through 2040,” he said.

NWF officials were “stunned” by San Antonio’s commitment, said Grace Barnett, NWF Monarch outreach coordinator who works out of Austin for the Washington, D.C. conservation group. In fact, after Mayor Taylor signed the Pledge on Monday, Dec. 7, NWF had to arrange a quick conference call to come up with a new category of support: Monarch Champion. “No one expected a city to take on all of the potential actions associated with the Pledge,” said Barnett.

To date, 46 cities have signed up for the national campaign to encourage mayors and local governments to increase Monarch butterfly and pollinator habitat.

Seven cities including Austin, Dallas, and St. Louis signed the Pledge and agreed to adopt eight or more of the 24 items to join the “leadership circle” of Monarch Mayors. Another 38 cities agreed to do three of the items. Only San Antonio agreed to 24 of 24. See the full list.

Monarchs must pass through the “Texas funnel” coming and going to Mexico. Graphic by Nicolas Rivard

As those of you that read the Texas Butterfly Ranch well know, Monarch butterflies migrate each spring and fall over multiple generations, moving from Mexico to Canada and back before settling into their roosts for the winter in the mountainous forests west of Mexico City. At the beginning and end of their journey, they pass through the “Texas funnel,” making our part of the world especially strategic to their migration. San Antonio lies in the heart of that migratory path and often serves as the first stop on the migration north in the spring and as the last stop in the funnel south in the fall.

In recent years, the Monarch butterfly migration has declined dramatically–by 80% from the 21-year average across North America, according to the pollinator advocacy organization the Xerces Society. Scientists attribute the decline to habitat loss, the increase in genetically modified crops in their primary breeding zone in the Midwest, increased pesticide use and climate change.

All that focus on Monarchs and pollinators has made San Antonio’s long commitment to pollinator advocacy ripe for the Pledge.

Volunteers like Mary Kennedy, Kip Kiphart and Mobi Warren have worked tirelessly with the Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project (MLMP), a citizen scientist initiative developed at the University of Minnesota. Local MLMP volunteers have meticulously inventoried natural cycles of milkweeds (the Monarch host plant), eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies at Cibolo Nature Center and the Museum Reach Milkweed Patch for years.

Just a short walk south of the Pearl on the San Antonio River, San Antonio’s Milkweed Patch serves an important inland urban monitoring site for overwintering Monarchs and has been the site of research conducted by some of the top Monarch scientists in the country, including Dr. Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota and Dr. Sonia Altizer of the University of Georgia.

Some of us in the San Antonio area tag Monarch butterflies in the fall, as part of the Monarch Watch citizen science tagging program based out of the University of Kansas at Lawrence. Butterflies tagged in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country have been recovered in the mountains of Michoacán, proving migratory patterns and providing data for scientists. (Personally I have tagged more than 2,000 butterflies, with 27 recoveries.) Programs and pollinator gardens have been established via Phil Hardberger Park, San Antonio Botanical Garden, Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, the Native Plant Society and elsewhere, as well as at community and private gardens all over town.

Many of us tag Monarch butterflies as citizen scientists for Monarch Watch. This one was raised and tagged in the Lavaca neighborhood in downtown San Antonio. Photo by Monika Maeckle

University of Texas at San Antonio students conduct research for a statewide milkweed survey. Photo courtesy UTSA

For a while, we wondered if it were going to happen.

NWF’s Grace Barnett, Dr. Terri Matiella of UTSA and I met with the Mayor’s office in October requesting that Mayor Taylor sign the Pledge. By doing so, she would have joined mayors in St. Louis, Austin, Grand Prairie, and six other cities along the IH-35 corridor that were among the vanguard to sign up. All we expected was participation–a commitment to three of the 24 items. The Mayor’s office was very receptive, but as is often the case when dealing with city government, nothing happened immediately.

Later we met with the City sustainability office. Joan Miller of the Native Plant Society of Texas joined us. Again, very receptive. Yet….by early December, cities like Oklahoma City, Houston and Garrett, Texas, (population 800) had signed the Pledge while San Antonio continued to consider its options.

Butterfly advocates speculated as recently as the weekend before its signing that the Pledge was dead. Little did we know that what was taking so long was that the Mayor’s office was working with departments across the City to assure they could come through with all 24 items and make us the nation’s first Monarch Champion city.

In addition to the NWF reccomendations, Mayor Taylor said she is even considering a pollinator garden in her Dignowity Hill front yard as well as at the historic Dignowity Park, which her home fronts. Whenever you’re ready, Mayor, let us know. Our pollinator posse will bring shovels, spades, native milkweeds and nectar plants to help make it happen.

The USDA announced changes in plant hardiness zones this week, moving San Antonio into the same planting zone as Houston and Corpus Christi while Austin, Dallas and Houston zones remain unchanged. The backsides of seed packets will never be the same.

The new map reflects 30 years of temperature data, from 1976 – 2006, and includes 26 specific zones, each with a five-degree temperature differential.

For example, San Antonio moved from zone 8b, with annual lows of 15 – 20 degrees, to zone 9a, with annual lows of 20-25 degrees. Of 34 cities listed on the key of the map, 18 have new zoning designations.

Like what you’re reading? Don’t miss a single post from the Texas Butterfly Ranch. Sign up for email delivery in the right navigation bar on this page, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, @butterflybeat.

Working as Natural Resources Management Specialist for the San Antonio River Authority (SARA) is “a dream assignment” for Lee Marlowe, the biologist who serves as plant guardian of the landmark San Antonio River restoration project. The MacArthur High School graduate was living and working in Minneapolis when she noticed the job listing during a visit home for Christmas in 2007.

Lee Marlowe, Natural Resources Management Specialist for the San Antonio River Authority

Known around SARA as “the plant lady,” Marlowe works with a team of nine to restore and maintain the 13 miles of river frontage that stretch from the formal plantings of the Museum Reach north of downtown to the native wildscapes of the Mission Reach that forge south. Marlowe is passionate and approachable about the complex project, which entails planning, engineering, construction, landscaping and luck–with weather as the biggest wildcard.

“People relate to her,” said Suzanne Scott, General Manager of SARA. “She is able to communicate in such a way that the complex nuances of the project can be understood in layman’s terms.”

She confirmed that the species is, indeed, the NONnative Asclepias curassavica, also known as Tropical milkweed.

“I would rather not have it there,” she said matter-of-factly. “That area was to be a formal garden and had to look good year-round,” she said.

On the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River: 3,000 native trees planted recently

That won’t be the case south of downtown on the Mission Reach. Marlowe and her team have relocated 3.5 million cubic yards of soil (the equivalent amount of concrete could build another Hoover Dam) to accommodate 23,000 native trees scheduled for installation by 2014. So far, 3,000 saplings and more than 10,000 pounds of wildflower seed have been planted.

Marlowe noted that while dozens of wildflower species were planted on the Mission Reach, many more ”volunteers”–gardening talk for plants that grow of their own volition, unplanned and unannounced–have sprouted. Perhaps three times as many. She cited the common sunflower Helianthus annuus as the most active volunteer.

The Common Sunflower, Helianthus annuus, was an active "volunteer" on the Mission Reach

“It did so well we had to thin it out in some locations where it was compromising other plantings,” she said. Marlowe attributed the wildflower windfall to active land management (read: pulling weeds) even moreso than the restoration of native conditions.

Interestingly, the same problem plants that plague home gardeners also invade the meticulously planned and managed Mission Reach. Marlowe won’t single out a “most” troublesome plant, as it depends on the season and the day. But Bermuda grass ranks near the top.

While the SARA restoration project has won numerous local awards, Steven Schauer, SARA’s External Communications Manager, said later this spring SARA will nominate the Mission Reach for the Riverprize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award. A win would shine international attention on the Mission Reach. The prize, awarded by Australia-based International River Foundation, gives recognition, reward and support to those who have developed and implemented outstanding, visionary and sustainable programs in river management.

In 2011, the Riverprize and its $330,000 purse went to the Charles River in Boston. We’re betting in 2012 San Antonio’s Mission Reach has a credible shot and we’re keeping fingers crossed. The award is announced in October.

Like what you’re reading? Don’t miss a single post from the Texas Butterfly Ranch. Sign up for email delivery in the right navigation bar on this page, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, @butterflybeat.

Several emails like the one below landed in my mailbox this week seeking counsel on what to do about late season Monarchs.

Hi Monika,

My friends found seven Monarch caterpillars on a well- protected piece of milkweed. Six are gone, but one spun a chrysalis that they are protecting. Do you have any advice? We are wondering how long it will be in the chrysalis state in the winter. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Dale

I would bring it inside, Dale–but that’s just me.

Usually it takes 10 – 14 days to eclose, or become a butterfly, but cooler temps can extend the process. Caterpillars I

Monarch caterpillar makes its "J" shape and readies to form its chrysalis, 12/21/2011 in my kitchen.

found on potted milkweed in mid December and brought inside hatched just last week and flew off on a warm 70-degree afternoon. But it could easily have gone the other way, with an ice storm hitting just as my butterflies hatched. Then what?

Deciding whether or not to adopt in-process butterflies during the off-season always presents a quandary. Questions to ask:

Do you have nectar available? Newborn butterflies generally don’t need to eat for the first 24 hours, but then they’ll need sustenance.

What about host plants? A butterfly’s first priority is to mate (for males) and lay eggs (for females) on their specific host plant.

Will the weather cooperate? Butterflies don’t fly when it’s less than 65 degrees. Most will die with a freeze.

With our crazy Texas weather, Monarchs and other butterflies can hatch throughout the year depending on temperatures and host plant availability. As noted last week, Monarchs are reproducing regularly on the San Antonio River — even into January. Whether or not the eggs of those late season couplings make it to the butterfly stage is a crap shoot dictated by Mother Nature.

Monarch butterfly about to hatch in my kitchen

Generally, if I have host plants, I take found caterpillars into my kitchen to increase their chances of becoming a butterfly. Studies suggest that caterpillars and eggs left entirely to nature have a 10% chance of becoming a butterfly. When we lend a hand the odds are flipped–with a 90% chance.

What’s sad is when butterflies hatch and enter a world with no potential mates, no nectar and no host plants. I once bought several chrysalises at Butterfly World, the Disneyland”

Tropical milkweed on the San Antonio River Walk 1/04/2012

of butterflies and a worthy destination for butterfly fans in Coconut Grove, Florida. I returned to Texas in mid December with Luna and Polyphemus Moth cocoons, and a Giant Swallowtail chrysalis.

I pinned each to the curtain of my kitchen window as directed, providing the bright light that can speed up development.

The Luna Moth hatched beautifully and was released on a relatively warm January evening. The Polyphemus Moth never hatched. When the Giant Swallowtail eventually eclosed–about six weeks after purchase–an ice storm raged outside. A week of cold and freeze followed. The poor creature flailed around on my kitchen floor, refusing the cut flowers and diluted Gatorade I offered via Q-Tip. After three sad days, the Swallowtail perished.

For Monarchs, this may not be a problem if you have milkweed growing year round. The non-native but easily adapted Asclepias curassavica, sold in many nurseries as Tropical milkweed, provides nectar and host plant material and grows gregariously in pots that can be moved in and outside.

That said, some Monarch scientists, including our friend Dr. Lincoln Brower, worry that cultivating Monarch butterflies on Tropical milkweed year round can result in undesirable colonies of Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, or OE, a protozoan disease that infects Monarchs and other milkweed feeders. OE is present in the landscape but seems to especially flourish on Tropical milkweed in southern climates late in the year. In colder climates and the wild, milkweeds die off in the winter, apparently purging OE to a large degree.

Scientists speculate that local OE-infested Monarchs will breed with migrating populations, possibly jeopardizing the migration. Butterfly breeders and enthusiasts argue that OE is like staphylococcus–present in our populations and getting out of hand only under stressed circumstances. Some believe that OE is simply a part of the evolutionary cycle, killing those butterflies less fit than others.

The answer, Dale, is that it’s a cold, cruel world for butterflies caught in flighty Texas winters–and an uneasy call for butterfly fans seeking to lend them a hand.

Like what you’re reading? Don’t miss a single post from the Texas Butterfly Ranch. Sign up for email delivery in the right navigation bar on this page, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, @butterflybeat.

If, like me, you enjoy witnessing the metamorphosis, come down to the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River over the holidays to check out the transformation underway. More than 3,000 native tree saplings have been planted about two miles south of the new LED lights on the River Walk, an apt backdrop to restoring “the meander” to the San Antonio River.

Various bird life has settled on the San Antonio River Mission Reach. Butterflies are not far behind., an apt backdrop for bringing "the meander" back to the River.

For years the San Antonio River south of downtown was treated like a drainage ditch. But no more. With the $246 million Mission Reach investment of public and private funds overseen by the San Antonio River Authority (SARA), the River will once again flow as a riffle-riddled stream, home to a diversity of birds, other wildlife, and yes: butterflies.

No official butterfly habitat has been declared, says Lee Marlowe, Natural Resource Management Specialist for SARA. Yet these early stages of the Mission Reach improvements are “habitat restoration projects, so the entire areas support numerous butterfly species,” she says. I like the sound of that.

Marlowe provided a Mission Reach plant list that spells good news for future generations of butterflies: Milkweed, Purple Coneflower, Cut Leaf Daisy, Sunflowers, Goldenrod, and several clovers are included. Host and nectar plants dot the list of 39-species. So do dozens of native trees and grasses.

When complete, the project will add eight miles of nature trails to San Antonio, connecting four of our historic missions to each other via hike and bike trails and restoring and restoring 334 acres of riparian woodland. City leadership also hopes the south side Mission Reach, combined with the north bound Museum Reach, will connect the north and south sides of our city to each with the San Antonio River as a common thread. See the video above for an overview of the project.

On the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River: 3,000 trees planted in recent weeks

A sense of community has already taken root along the trails as regulars walk their dogs, jog, ride bikes and enjoy the riffles. The same goes for wildlife: more trees, wildflowers and a restored River mean more insects and aquatic life. Snowy egrets, Greater Blue Heron, ducks and Cormorants have all taken up residence on the Mission Reach so they can enjoy the bounty. An increased butterfly population is not far behind.

Having spent the last year in Austin, I haven’t had the chance to check on my favorite public milkweed patch on the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Walk as often as I’d like. Whenever I came to town over the last year and my husband and I found ourselves at the Pearl Brewery Farmer’s Market or enjoying a taco at La Gloria, we would wander down to the vast expanse of Asclepias tuberosa (native Butterflyweed and Monarch butterfly host) planted by the San Antonio River Authority (SARA) two years ago.

The Museum Reach Milkweed Patch on San Antonio River Walk in Dec. 2011, dwarf white Lantana in background

A visit upon my recent San Antonio homecoming left me grinning. A diverse population of butterflies flitted along the flowering stretch of river just south of the Pearl Brewery.

Monarchs, Sulphurs, Painted Ladies, Gulf Fritillaries–all nectared on native milkweed, lantana and passionflower vines, aerially skipping above the walkways and enchanting those lucky enough to bear witness. Even after hints of a first frost descended on San Antonio this week, the butterfly wildscape looked stunning–robust, healthy, and still showing flowers. Recent rains helped.

Passionflower and its fruit, the host plant to the Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing, on the San Antonio River Walk

I’m not the only one delighted by the display. Benjamin Ahlburg, a five-year-old fellow butterfly fan and son of Trinity University’s President Dennis Ahlburg and Penelope Harley, relayed via email that a recent trot down the River Walk left him charmed.

“Mum, it really is a butterfly city,” he told his British mom in an accent worthy of Harry Potter. Tourists and passers-by parked themselves on benches to observe the butterfly festival, pronouncing it “lovely.”

Sulphur butterfly on lantana, photo by hsny.org

Austin has Ladybird Lake and its incumbent urban charms–hipster-crowded running trails, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards for rent, and of course, the famous bat colony under the Congress Avenue bridge.

San Antonio’s River Walk has some of that, and more: a unique marriage of wild and urban. Venture north or south of the touristy downtown River Walk and enjoy publicly funded improvements that bring the wild aspects of South Texas into our downtown backyard. This urban wildscape befits San Antonio’s geographic location as “the funnel” of the Monarch Butterfly migration and as a crossroads for myriad butterfly species. And for home gardeners and those with acreage destined for a butterfly wildscape, our San Antonio River Walk provides proven inspiration for what works.

San Antonio River Improvements Project

Two years after its installation during our historic Texas drought, the SARA’s $72.1 million Museum Urban Reach Segment extends 1.5 miles north from downtown, from Lexington Street to Josephine Street. The project is part of $358.3 million in San Antonio River improvements to restore the San Antonio River by Bexar County, the City of San Antonio, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the San Antonio River Authority (SARA) and the San Antonio River Foundation.

And it gets better. South of downtown, the Mission Reach segment of the improvement project offers an even longer, more natural river walk all the way to Mission Espada. The undertaking will restore 334 acres of riparian woodland and includes the planting of more than 20,000 young trees and shrubs, 39 native tree and shrub species and more than 60 native grass and wildlife species. It’s already happening and vividly on display just south of The Blue Star Arts complex.

According to the Project website, when the restoration is complete,

“The native landscape will look wild rather than manicured. Grasses and wildflowers will be allowed to grow to their natural heights rather than mowed. Boat traffic on the river will be limited to canoes and kayaks rather than barges. The result will be a serene, natural landscape where visitors can enjoy the inherent beauty of the river.”